Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

brizzlegirl

Thanks HHOD...think I am skirting round the fact they are rats though..suspect different rules apply to their eating habits!!!!

Ugh. Oh well, no recent invasion.

Hope XS is well in RL..sending her hugs xx

XSpender

Thank you all for popping in while I have been away spending, dealing with a significant drop in income this month and finding a way forward for our family that achieves our financial security.

DS had a super birthday and we had an amazing holiday which just went to confirm how much we enjoy UK self catering holidays more than a week all inclusive somewhere. We are Eurocamping this summer and I can see this been our go-to for many years to come if we like it. We all have big birthdays next year and after much discussion the consensus is a 2 week Eurocamp in either Germany or The Netherlands would suit us better than the 2 weeks in California we were considering and will be much more our budget.

DH had what I can only describe as a lightbulb moment a few weeks back after talking to his good friend who is 12 years older than him and who will clear his mortgage this year. It really focused his mind about keeping this house if he wanted a less stressful job (can’t see that happening) or if one of us was unable to work for example neither of which is possible if we still have a massive mortgage payment until we are 67. This is the first time DH has thought this far ahead. He has a mortgage free date of 60 in his mind, I have 59 in mine

I have been reading brizzlegirls diary and have been interested in her new approach to debt busting and investing. So much so that I downloaded the Barefoot Investor book to read while I was away a couple of weeks ago with work. I was knocked for 6 by the simplicity of the plan and how it would work perfectly for us that I got off the bed I was sitting on and walked circles around the room a dozen times going ‘Oh my God, oh my god’, :eek: over dramatic or what! I think I lit up half of the east coast of Scotland with my light bulb moment :rotfl:

It is the only plan I have looked at that allows us to pay off our debt in half the time, allows us some life and enables us to invest for our retirement and pay off the mortgage early rather than choosing either or. It's like my money has multiplied! If we can earn what we earn now and stick to the plan, we could be mortgage and debt free in 9 years and will have been able to invest a significant amount into pensions/investments for 6 years of those years:money: before ramping it up when the mortgage has gone.

DH and I had our first ever proper sit down to talk through the plan and agree that this is how we want to manage our money going forward. DH made a couple of good suggestions and agreed with some cutbacks (cutting Christmas budget, doing away with personal spends, 1 holiday a year) which will help us make progress quicker. We have some major expenses coming up over the next couple of months including our holiday for which we all need new walking sandals and spending money and we need to complete step 1 which is save £1000 EF so will start in earnest from October. We will be putting into practice some of the cutbacks and ‘spending’ practices from July.

There is a strong chance I will be made redundant/moved to a different project by the end of the year, so I will be saving rather than OPing the amount allocated to debt Ops until I know I have another job/project. If I am made redundant but have another job to go to (another company) I will swap steps, save the OP pot and redundancy money and take another 5 months to do step 2 which is build the 3-month salary buffer before focusing on clearing the debt. If I move to another project I will OP the pot and clear the four smallest debts. All our debt is on 0%. Either way (debt or savings first) we will achieve our goals of saving the buffer and be debt free by the same date (2022).

Between now and October we will:

1) Save £1000 emergency fund by 30/09/19 (currently on £293 when I pay my coins in next week) which is a shockingly low amount for 2 people who earn a decent wage!
2) Save drastically reduced holiday spending money budget by 31/07/19 (I am actually looking forward to making this work when we are away for 2 weeks, helps that it will be too hot to eat! Lots of planning of cheap days out/meals to do)
3) Re-write my CV (professional rewrite hasn’t got me any nibbles) and start job hunting again
4) Pay for the strimmer that is interest bearing on the CC from next month asap (ours broke and we have at least 150 foot of hedge at the front to maintain!) £113 for a super duper one in B and cue clearance which we would have missed if a kind employee hadn't told us about them when we were looking at the full price ones :T
5) Reduce our spending on food (averaging £505.02 YTD which is ridiculous :mad: aiming for £340 including school lunches). Need to get my old style mojo back while attempting to lose weight and eat clean
6) Reduce our outgoings including reducing my phone contract from £34 to £8, negotiating a better cost on boiler cover than the renewal quoted and changing DS childcare provision saving £70/month from September
7) Reduce our energy consumption and submit regular meter readings (already working on this by banning the TD, not heating hot water in an evening, no heating on when WFH, throws on sofas etc.)
8) Not go on a mad shopping spree in the city DH and I are visiting next month to see a band. I only have sandals and bras (down to 2 and neither are black) on my list!
9) Not commit to any more ticketed events/concert tickets/sport races this year and next year
10) Sort out our back garden ourselves instead of paying a landscaper (it is a mess but a skip, some decent weather and a lot of hard graft will transform it especially if DB and DSIL-2-B can help)
11) Hold a Money Meeting every month to review our progress ready to start the plan in earnest

apple_muncher

This is one awesome read, XSpender. Wow! You have exciting times ahead. Heck, I'm excited for you!!

Suffolk_lass

Welcome back XS - I noticed you popped in on my diary this week and wondered if you would return to this one - it is good to see you back and so positive.

That is one heck of a plan. I hope to cheer you on! I am very impressed that all your debt (except your mortgage) is now 0% which was the approach I took as well. My emergency buffer is a £10k Fund in an interest-bearing account that can be accessed when needed - which just removed the temptation sitting around covering those emergency white goods or vehicle failures and stopped us taking on more CC debt. In that regard £1000 is a great start and would cover all but a vehicle failure.

Honeysucklelou2

The Barefoot Investor sounds intriguing. Striking that balance between living now, clearing debt and savings is a tricky one. Will be trying to read that when we get to the summer holidays!

XSpender

apple_muncher wrote: »

This is one awesome read, XSpender. Wow! You have exciting times ahead. Heck, I'm excited for you!!

I’m super excited too

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Welcome back XS - I noticed you popped in on my diary this week and wondered if you would return to this one - it is good to see you back and so positive.

That is one heck of a plan. I hope to cheer you on! I am very impressed that all your debt (except your mortgage) is now 0% which was the approach I took as well. My emergency buffer is a £10k Fund in an interest-bearing account that can be accessed when needed - which just removed the temptation sitting around covering those emergency white goods or vehicle failures and stopped us taking on more CC debt. In that regard £1000 is a great start and would cover all but a vehicle failure.

Two company cars here so luckily no vehicle failures to cover. We are planning on £1000 emergency fund and £8000 against job loss etc. As per the BI plan is to cover 3 months living costs.

More progress today on cutting our costs:) On the way back from our day out in my car today we worked out that the amount I pay for my private mileage is a lot more than DH pays for his, about double :eek: We always use my car on an evening and weekend as it is bigger and ‘posher’ than his. I couldn’t care less what we drive about in TBH

From now on we are going to park mine up on a weekend and use his plus he is going to pick DS up from childcare on his way home from his Mum’s as it is costing me £10 week. This will also drop when we change his childcare in September as new provider is less than 1 mile from our house.

I got stuck with a much more expensive diesel co car this cycle due to limited availability which is costing me an area and a leg but should hopefully change it next month and will be going for something cheaper and petrol to cut my tax.

XSpender

Some progress on my goals and 1 backward step

Between now and October we will:

4) Pay for the strimmer that is interest bearing on the CC from next month asap (ours broke and we have at least 150 foot of hedge at the front to maintain!) £113 - Paid £60.45 off this yesterday
5) Reduce our spending on food (averaging £505.02 YTD which is ridiculous :mad: aiming for £340 including school lunches). Need to get my old style mojo back while attempting to lose weight and eat clean - I had accidentally hidden the school lunches category on YNAB so they were missed off my calculation so amended as above and on first post - currently on £332.20 but will need a small shop Friday, willuse tonight's dinner allowance for some fruit and will need a bigger shop on the 28th but as I am away 3 days and DH 1 will try and eke out what we have and keep the list as short as poss. No booze this weekend either
9) Not commit to any more ticketed events/concert tickets/sport races this year and next year 3 tickets to an England Rugby match next month

We are about £62.65 short this month which I will need to find from somewhere. Not bad to say we were £650 down on income this month due to a big fuel bill from our holiday and DS been on SSP for 4 days and we have paid the annual house insurance.

XSpender

Found £50 of the shortfall as I had allocated it to a debt payment that isn't due out until pay day next week and child benefit is due Monday so should manage until DH paid next Friday.

I have done a meal plan for the rest of June and, as I am away for 3 days and 2 nights, we hardly need anything. I have 6 things on my list! We will need a bigger shop next Friday but will meal plan again and attempt to keep it low. DH and I are away on our city break for 2 days and 1 night so food for this is covered from our spending money. I also have a dinner allowance which will cover some bits for home as I never use it all as I get sick of eating hotel food and often have a sandwich in the room.

Spoke to the relative we are staying with for part of our summer holiday. We were offered loan of a car while we are there a while back which I have confirmed is now not available so we will have to hire a car and this is going to have to go on the CC. I must book this at the weekend.

DH and I have cut our holiday spending budget drastically and are quite excited about achieving it; we are seeing it as a bit of a game/challenge to come under budget while still having a great 2 weeks. This will be saved for and is in the budget.

Quiet weekend planned, we are hoping the weather stays dry so we can do some tidying in the garden and fill the green bin as we have a lot of garden waste to dispose of. DH is out Saturday afternoon so what we get done depends on how sore his head is

I had a good think while driving up and down the M6 this week about the type of job I want if/when I am made redundant. Actually I think I am ready for a change of role anyway, regardless of redundancy.

I also need to consider DH ageing parents who do after school care for DS and are beginning to find it a bit much so I need to be able to pick him up from after school club from September and not need to have him over night. We have cut their hours this month at their request and will use after school club exclusively by next school year. I am also worried about them managing school holiday care and am struggling to find any childcare for 3 weeks of the holidays. The 2 clubs I could have sent him to are both the same week so he can do one bit not the other. I will ask my friend I am seeing on Sunday what she has sorted for her girls.

I need a job that pays well, is my main area of interest/expertise and does not require a lot of travel every week. I am not bothered about having a company car. I have found 2 to apply for but need to change my CV to suit this type of role better.

I spent some time this morning looking at our DF date which is December 2021. I have a summer birthday and would like to push to get it done before the end of July 21 when I am still 50, end of June would be even better.:D

Plans for the weekend:

1) Yoga class
2) Rewrite/change CV
3) Apply for at least 2 jobs
4) Washing
5) DH to clear the ironing
6) Make a cake/brownies with DS
7) Take DS to church
8) Long walk with the dog
9) Small food shop
10) Book hire car
11) DH to speak to DMIL about changing amount we are paying for childcare now hours reduced (will be my eleventy billionth time of asking because DMIL can be quite prickly about certain things)
12) Tidy garden, dismantle half collapsed arbor (fill green bin as a minimum bit not with the arbor;))
13) Finish my book. I haven't read much this month
14) Cuppa with friend on Sunday and ask about childcare for holidays

XSpender

DH spent less on his afternoon jollie than expected which was good but forgot to tell me earlier that he is going to Glasgow tomorrow so has needed to fill the car up. Child Ben goes in tomorrow thank goodness. This month has been very tight and I will be glad when it is done with. Pay day for both of us on Friday

This weekends list

1) [STRIKE]Yoga class [/STRIKE] done and sore glutes today
2) [STRIKE]Rewrite/change CV [/STRIKE] done
3) [STRIKE]Apply for at least 2 jobs [/STRIKE] applied for 1 and have found another but is in financial services and my old IVA may cause a problem
4) [STRIKE]Washing[/STRIKE] done
5) DH to clear the ironing
6) Make a cake/brownies with DS - still had enough treats to get through
7)[STRIKE] Take DS to church[/STRIKE] done, the service has changed somewhat since I was a regular churchgoer I.e. about 35 years ago
8) [STRIKE]Long walk with the dog[/STRIKE] bit warm for my old boy so was a shorter one with DS on his bike yesterday and a long one this evening
9) [STRIKE]Small food shop[/STRIKE] done
10) Book hire car
11) DH to speak to DMIL about changing amount we are paying for childcare now hours reduced (will be my eleventy billionth time of asking because DMIL can be quite prickly about certain things)
12) [STRIKE]Tidy garden, dismantle half collapsed arbor (fill green bin as a minimum bit not with the arbor;))[/STRIKE] - done
13) [STRIKE]Finish my book. I haven't read much this month [/STRIKE] - done
14) [STRIKE]Cuppa with friend on Sunday and ask about childcare for holidays[/STRIKE] - done but so busy chatting about everything else forgot to ask about the childcare!

brizzlegirl

Hey XS!!!

Great to have you back and sharing your news. Very inspiring and suitably ambitious! Glad you liked the method, very Aussie at times but as you say so so simple.

I am having problems sticking to it this month though, lots of additional big lump sums, car stuff g. MOT and birthdays and school events which have had to go on a CC, but the overall direction is always down which is one of the important things. My savings have also taken a hammering but I will try and make that up. There will be some Prom dress returns which should help the card total. Am also away on a short break with OH this weekend, but much needed. Ships in the night and both on crazy work schedules...another late work night tonight but it all pays the bills..

HMRC have finally given me a new tax code which makes sense and means they will adjust my PAYE to get the deficit back in year but I will only find out what the monthly deduction amounts to when I get paid next month. Sorry to hear OH was on SSP, that’s a small amount to adjust to, so well done on that...

Am enjoying this better weather, hope it’s good where you are too.

X